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Legends of Runeterra | Posted by | 6 years, 1 month ago
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How to deal with Katarina

I've seen people say she is a weak champ but at least from my experience she's the most annoying thing ever. 3 health means very few spells can kill her, unless you're P&Z or Shadow Isles you're fucked basically. The quick attack means she survives every time she strikes after she upgrades. Not joking, and i find this stupid. Even if my blocker would normally kill her, she just returns to hand all fine and dandy. And the fact she Rallies every time you play her is very difficult to deal with, not a lot of ways to win the board early in this game without minion combat and that is exactly what she beats me on i feel. 

So what do i do? I suppose i can freeze but that's just temporary and i use mana on a delay effect while the enemy builds the board. with cheap creatures that keep dealing chip damage on me.

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  • I've seen people say she is a weak champ but at least from my experience she's the most annoying thing ever. 3 health means very few spells can kill her, unless you're P&Z or Shadow Isles you're fucked basically. The quick attack means she survives every time she strikes after she upgrades. Not joking, and i find this stupid. Even if my blocker would normally kill her, she just returns to hand all fine and dandy. And the fact she Rallies every time you play her is very difficult to deal with, not a lot of ways to win the board early in this game without minion combat and that is exactly what she beats me on i feel. 

    So what do i do? I suppose i can freeze but that's just temporary and i use mana on a delay effect while the enemy builds the board. with cheap creatures that keep dealing chip damage on me.

    • Quote From BasilAnguis

      So what do i do? I suppose i can freeze but that's just temporary and i use mana on a delay effect while the enemy builds the board. with cheap creatures that keep dealing chip damage on me.

      If you wait until after they announce her as an attacker and then block and frostbite her, she'll die.  She only recalls if she strikes, and she can only strike if she has >0 attack.

      In general, though: don't loose board.  Being able to rally multiple times doesn't mean jack for your opponent if they don't have the attackers to back it up.  If they play 2 cheap units: you play 1 medium sized unit that can kill them both off.  Before long, they'll run out of cards meaning they won't have any units besides Katarina who is a terrible blocker--then you punish them.

    • Shadow Isles has the best chance to deal with her with its multitude of removal spells.

      Piltover & Zaun is almost as easy.

      Noxus has Whilrling Death ... use it wisely!

      Ionia has Mark of Death and Yasuo. You're probably going to have to rely on your deck's other region unless you have lots of stun/recall.

      Freljord can Frostbite her to keep her from bouncing, then use a Challenger to finish her off (if you're lucky).

      Demacia can Detain her, use Single Combat or Judgment,  or just chump block every time she appears.

      If you are not running any of these options, yeah, you're pretty much screwed (also maybe not the best deckbuilder?).

  • The downside of her is that you have to pay 4 mana each turn, if you are ahead, you can surely just close out games with her, but if you have a bad early or your opponent managed to reset the board or get ahead, you will struggle to be able to use her effectively.

    She is one of the more unique champs for sure.

    Staff

  • I have laughed every time I've seen someone call Kat weak. People horribly underrated Rally in the opening stages of the game, and honestly it's still underutilised.

    Answer to OP - Frostbite, removal, tempo. The first two have already been covered in the thread, and the third has been touched on.

    Kat isn't really a Champion. I mean... she is, technically, but the way she works means she's more akin to a damaging spell with Rally built in. If your opponent is spending 4 mana repeatedly on a Shunpo that you can block with any old chump, you respond by flooding the board. Kat produces aggression by giving her player multiple attacks in any given turn, what she doesn't really give is value. She has no response to a board full of 3/3s.

    • I used to play kata until i realized that she is really not good at all in a competetive environment:

      she is a 3 mana: deal 3 damge to whatever blocks her/ to the opponent (what is just a slow play that is not mana efficient)

      she then becomes a 4 mana:deal 4 damge to whatever blocks her/ to the opponent (what is not mana efficient) + an attack reset

      the 1 time in 20 games where you get to play her 2 times a turn and race down you opponent is not worth putting her in your deck

      At no point she helps you to develop your own board while she requires you winning on the board to work AND is easy to remove AND she is just a free feed when she is played against freljord

       

  • Almost any Region has a way to deal with her, so she's not particulary difficult to remove:

    • SI has multiple remova spell, both that deal damage or directly kill a unit.
    • P&Z has many direct damage spells.
    • Noxus has Whirling Death.
    • Ionia can rely on Mark of DeathBADCARDNAME and several Recall and Stun effects.
    • Demacia as Detain, JudgementBADCARDNAME and Single Combat cards.
    • Freljord can simply Frostbite her to death, just use it after she has been declared as attacker than block and freeze her.
    • Any Challenger unit can be a threat to her.

    To me, it seems like a good number of solutions (more or less efficient) that can be used by almost any deck.

    • Quote From Lightspoon
      • Ionia can rely on Mark of Death and several Recall and Stun effects.

      .

      Please note that Death Mark will only work if you find a way to prevent her from striking--i.e., if she has ephemeral tag and is attacking, she will recall first, THEN ephemeral would go into effect except she's already safe.

      • What you say is correct, but I was thinking of using Death Mark outside of combat as a sort of removal in combo with an Ephemeral unit. Not the most efficient solution but still another option for Ionia, if paired with SI.

        • Quote From Lightspoon

          What you say is correct, but I was thinking of using Death Mark outside of combat as a sort of removal in combo with an Ephemeral unit. Not the most efficient solution but still another option for Ionia, if paired with SI.

          That would require the opponent playing Katarina in a round they can't attack with her. I don't think many players would do that, just letting her sit on the board. Seems like a very unlikely way to get rid of her.

  • Early game: just avoid to block katarina, she will go back to the hand which means 3-4 mana tempo loss at cost of 3-4 health which is clearly not worth it.

    Late game: She can be a powerhouse in the right circumstances but overall there are much better and more consistent finishers then her.

  • If they play it at the end of your turn to have her ready for their attack you can still play an Ephemeral minion and Death Mark, while if they play her at the start of their turn than you'll have the priority to use even slow spell or play a minion to face her (something with some Play or Summon effect).